(Yicai) Jan. 2 -- Chinese cinemas should sell more tickets over the upcoming eight-day Chinese New Year break this year than last year, and might even approach 2023’s level, as a number of highly anticipated movies are scheduled to be released, industry insiders said.

The Chinese New Year season, which is the most important period in China’s film market, should be better this year than last year as the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on film production is easing, enabling more and better movies to come on the market, said Sun Jiashan, an associate researcher at the Central Academy of Culture and Tourism Administration. Last year the box office disappointed with revenue plunging 22.7 percent from the year before to CNY42.5 billion (USD5.8 billion).

The Spring Festival period remains a peak period for Chinese cinema, said Yin Hong, vice chairman of the China Film Association. During this long holiday, which is centered around family activities, movies continue to be a major form of entertainment. If films achieve an audience satisfaction rate of over 70 percent, this year's Chinese New Year is likely to produce three or four box office hits.

The movie line-up for this year’s Lunar New Year holiday, which runs from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3, is giving market observers reason to be optimistic. Six films had been scheduled for release over the Spring Festival as of Dec. 31, four of which are sequels or prequels to popular works.

They include the animation Nezha 2, which is the sequel to Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child, the biggest grossing movie in China in 2019, as well as the second installment of the fantasy trilogy Creation of the Gods: Kingdom of Storms, which took third place in the 2023 summer box office. And the decade-long Detective Chinatown series will release a prequel film, while the animated Boonie Bears series will debut a new movie.

Editor: Kim Taylor